San Daniele ham: After the promotional activity in Germany, now it is the turn of San Francisco

San Daniele ham’s international engagements are becoming more frequent. After a year in which exports of the PDO product from the Friuli region confirmed a 13 % share of sales, 2014 opened with the positive outcome of its promotional activity in Europe, with specific reference to Germany, to be followed by a prestige trip to the USA.

Indeed, the Prosciutto di San Daniele Consortiumwill be present from 19 January onwards at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. This will provide an opportunity for the manager of the Prosciutto di San Daniele ConsortiumMario Cichetti to take stock of the latest activities on foreign markets. “We are especially satisfied with Germany, the second most important country for San Daniele exports, where an important promotional campaign, started in November 2012, has just ended. Its aim was to circulate information about the unique characteristics of our ham and of the value of the Italian pork-meat chain which underlies the PDO, boosting the demand. This result was achieved thanks to promotion and information activities at the points of sale of large-scale retailers in the most important cities in Germany and a press campaign in the German press addressing both specialised operators and end consumers.”

This activity was part of the “Information and promotional campaign for certified pork products” promoted by the Italian Ministry for Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, and backed with the financial resources of the Zootechnical Plan and the organisational resources of Borsa Merci Telematica Italiana S.c.p.a..

One important aspect of the campaign was direct contact with thousands of consumers. “We were able to note a good level of familiarity with San Daniele ham and appreciation of the campaign”, continued the manager of the Consortium. “56% of the contacts were already acquainted with San Daniele ham, 97% of them stated that they were ready to recommend it to other consumers and 84% felt that the manner of promotion was excellent”.

The consumer enquiry showed that consumers appreciated and had the habit of purchasing PDO products. 41% of the people interviewed stated that they ate them regularly, even though only 18% knew exactly what PDO meant.

One of the most important results of the programme was to help us discover what contributed towards creating an excellence such as San Daniele ham: circulating all the information useful for recognising the product, the processing methods and the important bond with the local area of origin.

With the same promotional intention, it is planned to attend the forthcoming Fancy Food Show, one of the activities called for in the Legends from Europe project aimed at the United States, co-funded by the European Community and by the Italian Ministry for Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies and organised jointly with the Grana Padano, Parma Ham. Parmigiano Reggiano and Montasio Cheese consortiums.

Since 1955 Fancy Food Shows have been the greatest food showcase in North America. The two editions, that is to say the Winter Show in San Francisco and the Summer Show in New York City, involve over 40,000 participants and 260,000 products.

Since 2011 San Daniele ham has been one of the leading players of the show, organising tasting sessions that are always sold out and contribute decisively towards helping the international public to discover this PDO product from the Friuli area.